Sunday, July 1, 2012

The closer it gets the more nightmares I've been having about how depressing the Dark Knight Rises trailer looks, all those ickle children looking mournfully up at the sky as that bloke from Star Trek: Nemesis mumbles incoherently and Christian Bale limps about with a stick on beard.

For fucks sake Nolan, somebody throw a sodding pie.

Anyway, after a few drinks last night I had a very lucid bat-based dream and luckily I manage to write it down as I awoke.

Obviously this was before I noticed the dead rent boy at the bottom of the bed but that's a different story.

"No, Joker. You’re playing the wrong game. The old game. Tonight you’re taking no hostages. Tonight I’m taking no prisoners!" John Cassavetes as an older, wiser Bruce Wayne.

RE: The Dark Knight Returns

Despised by critics yet loved by cinema goers, the big screen adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns popularity among lefties annoyed it's creator, Frank Miller so much that
vowed never to allow another one of his stories to be adapted in any medium.

Eventually, after realizing that he needed cash for a new cowboy hat he relented and finally allowed all of his properties to be adapted by anyone with a dollar and/or right wing leanings.

The Bat mask interior as envisaged byJean Giraud

The behind the scenes story is as exciting as anything on screen tho', with triple Oscar winner Argento taking over the project after Nicolas Winding Refn, Alejandro Jodorwosky, Shane Black, John Boorman, and Takashi Miike failed to stay attached to the
film.

During the Jodorwosky production, Mick Jagger was slated to play
the Joker, tho' Jagger reportedly actually appeared on set, his scenes shot at various locations around the world due to The Rolling Stones being in the middle of a world tour.

These scenes were to be inserted into
the final film at a later date using technology created by producer Stanley Kubrick.

It was this period that saw pre-production costs spiralling 12 years and 250 million dollars
over-budget, almost bankrupting Warner Brothers and causing Jodorwosky to secretly escape from America seeking refuge in Mexico where he hoped to film the entire movie and where construction of the full sized Gotham City sets had begun in earnest.

The Jean Giraud inspired Batmobile. 47 different versions were built for the film.

Trivia:

Some of the concept art by French cartoonist Jean (Moebius) Giraud were eventually used in Terry Zwigoff's stage adaptation of Marvel's Alpha Flight (2018). Initially Klaus Kinski was cast as the Joker
for Argento's production and 70% percent of his scenes were in the can
before he became increasingly deluded that he was being stalked by Mick Jagger
in revenge for 'stealing' his role.

Three weeks before the end of shooting Kinski disappeared on the same day that Jagger went missing from a Florida hotel room.

After a countrywide search it was discovered that after
numerous phone altercations with the Jagger, Kinski had kidnapped the singer in an attempt to replace him on stage and during a gig in Washington blow himself and the rest of The Stones to pieces in revenge for what he said were Great Britain's crimes against popular culture.